Jago Hua Savera – Pakistani film history re-discovered 14 June 2016

Jago Hua Savera was Pakistan’s first Oscar submission and is considered one of the best Pakistani films ever made. Made in 1959, and after an unsuccessful box office run in Pakistan, the film remained lost for decades. That is, until 2007, when the Three Continents Film Festival, run by French brothers Philippe and Alain Jalladeau, decided to hold a retrospective of Pakistani films, sparking off a search for the film across Pakistan, Bangladesh, India as well as Paris and London. While the original negatives had been lost, the film was eventually painstakingly restored in 2010. This May, it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival as part of its prestigious ‘Classics’ programme. And now it’s coming to London – the city where it premiered – with a screening organised by the Nauman Taseer Foundation (Taseer was the producer of the the film).

Written by Pakistan’s beloved revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Jago Hua Savera (‘The Day Shall Dawn’) was acted by Bengali star Tripti Mehra alongside a cast and crew made up almost entirely of first-timers. It was filmed on the banks of the Meghna river, and tells the story of the tribulations of a fishing community living in the village of Shaitnol in what was then East Pakistan and is now Bangladesh, and their struggles with unscrupulous money lenders. It is argued to be one of the only neo-realist films produced in Pakistan at the time.

A historical gem, and a rare glimpse into a moment in time – don’t miss it! See a recent BBC article on the film here.

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